Another robbery, another hoax, another traffic jam

It's a story that is becoming all too common in Boise. Boy meets bank teller. Boy leaves mysterious package on the counter. Boy takes off with undisclosed amount of cash. Police close streets, evacuate buildings and scramble around the mysterious package while boy strolls away.

The boy in this case was a 50-something man who robbed a U.S. Bank on Fairview Avenue during the lunch hour last Friday, October 28. Witnesses say the man was approximately 5 feet, 9 inches tall and a svelte 180 pounds, and wore jeans, black boots, a black and white plaid flannel shirt, blue baseball cap and a bushy salt and pepper beard that appeared to be fake. He walked into the bank, placed a newspaper-wrapped package the size of a VCR tape box on the counter, demanded cash and simply walked away. After the suspect made his withdrawal, police arrived on the scene, evacuated the bank and closed down a section of Fairview. It stayed closed for two and a half hours while they determined the device was harmless.

BW judges' ratings: For the crime's simplicity, efficiency and ability to keep the police chasing their tails for hours afterward, we give the robber a 5.8 out of 6 in execution. In style points, we admire the classic accessories utilized by this robber--fake beard, random box wrapped in newspaper--and give a 5.6. We'd give more, but the robber who knocked over a Key Bank in May with a box of cake mix and a blinking red light bulb set the style bar too high.